13 years for man who beat girlfriend

STOCKTON - A man who beat his 20-year-old girlfriend into a coma was sentenced Friday to more than 13 years in state prison.

Jennie Rodriguez-Moore

STOCKTON - A man who beat his 20-year-old girlfriend into a coma was sentenced Friday to more than 13 years in state prison.

Raoul Leyva, 34, was convicted by a jury in February of attempted voluntary manslaughter for brutally beating Brandy Marie Arreola, now 21, and leaving her with brain damage.

Arreola, whose words were barely audible, spoke for just about a minute at the sentencing, enough to make her wishes clear.

"I want him in jail," she said from her wheelchair, her mother, Diana Munoz, repeating her words for clarity.

The sentence, though it was the maximum, drew disappointment from Munoz, now the caretaker of the disabled Arreola.

"I feel like he should go to prison for the rest of his life," Munoz said to the judge. "He took everything away from her.

"Look at my daughter. She spent three months in a coma ... and she wakes up at night screaming and crying because of what he's done to her."

Munoz feels her daughter's attack might have been prevented if Leyva had been locked up in prison that day.

Leyva, who has become a poster child for Assemblywoman Susan Eggman's proposal to amend prison rules in AB109, was released early from county jail for overcrowding reasons after he was booked for violating state parole. Under AB109, parolees now serve revocations at the county jail instead of going back to prison.

"He should never have been out," Munoz said in court.

Leyva also gave a statement, saying he prays for Arreola every day. "I still love you," he told Arreola.

Prosecutor Thomas Testa asked Judge Seth Hoyt Jr. to give Leyva the maximum penalty. Leyva, Testa said, has been able to finagle the system, having been in and out of prison on charges that include prior domestic violence and having violated parole on a habitual basis.

"I ask the court to throw the book at him," Testa said.

Hoyt Jr. did just that, handing down the maximum term of five years and six months in state prison on one count of attempted voluntary manslaughter and five more years on an enhancement for causing brain injury to be served consecutively.

Leyva was found guilty on other enhancements and one count of causing corporal injury, but the law didn't allow the court to add more years on those charges, Hoyt Jr. said.

For other violations, Hoyt Jr. increased the total term to 13 years and six months, of which Leyva was ordered to serve at least 85 percent.

Leyva must pay $10,000 in restitution to the state, and an undetermined amount is expected to be added for Arreola's medical expenses.

Hoyt Jr. said if he had the power to incarcerate Leyva for life he would do that. Hopefully, the judge said, Leyva changes his ways so no other woman can endure what Arreola did.

"To know she is sentenced for life, certainly this punishment I'm giving you today does not equal what she has to go through," Hoyt Jr. said.

Before Arreola could be wheeled out of court, Munoz muttered with disappointment, "Thirteen years. Are you kidding me?"